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world news Diasabra 29 Mei 2021

Germany recognizes colonial killings in Namibia as genocide

(AP) — Germany is of- 65,000, were killed as were at tries opened in 2015, more
ficially recognizing the least 10,000 Nama. than a decade after a 2004
colonial-era massacre of visit to Namibia in which
tens of thousands of peo- “In the light of Germany’s then-Development Minister
ple in Namibia as geno- historical and moral respon- Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
cide and has agreed to sibility, we will ask Namibia offered Germany’s first apol-
provide funding to help and the descendants of the ogy for the killings. At the
the communities affected. victims for forgiveness,” Ger- time, she, too, acknowledged
But it is stopping short of man Foreign Minister Heiko they constituted a genocide.
formal reparations, which Maas said in a statement,
some have demanded. adding that the government Maas said that, “as a gesture
was committed to naming of recognition of the incal-
The move announced Fri- “unsparingly and without culable suffering,” Germany
day is the result of more euphemisms” the atrocities plans to support Namibia
than five years of talks about committed. and the descendants of the
killings between 1904 and victims with the 1.1 billion-
1908, when Germany was “We will now officially call euro “rebuilding and devel-
the southern African coun- these events what they were opment” program. He said
try’s colonial ruler. As part of from today’s perspective: a communities affected by the
it, Germany will provide 1.1 genocide,” he said. genocide would play a role on how to deal with this dark
billion euros ($1.3 billion) in deciding how those funds The projects Germany agreed chapter of our joint history
for projects that are expected Germany says that repre- would be used. to fund will cover areas such could be brought to a good
to stretch over 30 years. But sentatives of the Herero and as land reform, including conclusion for both sides,”
some groups protested Friday Nama were involved in the At the same time, he said that land purchases, rural infra- Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
in the Namibian capital amid negotiations, though Berlin’s “legal claims to compensa- structure, water supply and spokesman, Steffen Seibert,
complaints the accord did direct dealings have been tion cannot be derived from vocational training. They will told reporters in Berlin.
not go far enough. with the Namibian govern- this.” be separate from continuing
ment. development aid to Namibia. In 2018, Germany returned
Historians say German Gen. That reflects Germany’s more than a dozen skulls and
Lothar von Trotha, who was Germany gained control of position that the Genocide The two countries’ foreign other human remains taken
sent to what was then Ger- the desert country in the Convention of 1948 — cre- ministers are expected to sign from Namibia by colonial
man South West Africa to 1880s and surrendered the ated in response to the Ho- the agreement, but there was forces over a century earlier
put down an uprising by the territory to South Africa in locaust committed by Nazi no immediate announcement for pseudo-scientific racial
Herero people, instructed his 1915. Namibia gained inde- Germany — cannot be ap- of when that will happen. experiments. They had been
troops to wipe out the en- pendence in 1990. plied retroactively, and that stored in German hospitals,
tire tribe. They say that the its liability is political and “We are thankful that these museums and universities for
majority of Herero, about Talks between the two coun- moral rather than legal. long-running negotiations decades.

Spain criticized for unequally priced 'equality stamps'

(AP) — Spain’s postal service ing killed by a police officer in Min- But while the goal of Correos España aspects as commercial advertising,
is feeling a backlash from its at- neapolis. It said the stamps “reflect was to “shine a light on racial inequal- the Spanish language and in access to
tempt to highlight racial inequal- an unfair and painful reality that ity and promote diversity, inclusion housing. “It’s all connected,” he said.
ity. shouldn’t be allowed” and that ev- and equal rights,” critics are accusing
ery letter or parcel sent with them the company of having a tin ear for Correos España said it would make
State-owned Correos España this would “send a message against racial racial issues and misreading the senti- no comment on the controversy.
week issued a set of four stamps in inequality.” ment of Black people in Spain.
different skin-colored tones. The The postal service’s initiative has di-
darker the stamp, the lower the price. The campaign was launched dur- Antumi Toasijé, a historian who vided Spanish anti-racism activists.
The lightest color costs 1.60 euros ing European Diversity Month in heads the government’s Council for While the national SOS Racism Fed-
($1.95). The darkest one costs 0.70 collaboration with Spain’s national the Elimination of Racial or Ethnic eration backed it, the organization’s
euros ($0.85). SOS Racism Federation, a nonprofit Discrimination, urged the postal ser- Madrid section poured scorn on the
group, and featured a 60-second vid- vice to stop selling the stamps. effort.
The postal service calls them “Equal- eo with Spanish hip-hop star and ac-
ity Stamps” and introduced them on tivist El Chojín. “A campaign that outrages those it SOS Racismo Madrid said the cam-
the anniversary of George Floyd be- claims to defend is always a mistake,” paign helps conceal the structural
he tweeted. nature of racism and perpetuate the
notion of Black inferiority.
The main thrust of the public criti-
cism was that the darker stamps have Any racially aware person would
a lower value, giving the impression have identified what was wrong with
that a light skin color is worth more. the campaign, it said, adding that the
blunder proved the need for more ra-
Moha Gerehou, a 28-year-old Span- cially aware people in decision-mak-
ish author and a former president of ing positions at companies.
SOS Racismo Madrid, said that was
“an insurmountable contradiction.” The campaign also received criticism
on social media.
“At the end of the day, an anti-racism
campaign has put out a clearly racist This isn’t the first time the Spanish
message,” Gerehou told the Associ- postal service has sought to make a
ated Press on Friday. statement on social issues. Last June,
to coincide with LGBT Pride Month,
He put the controversy in the context it issued a special stamp and painted
of what he sees as structural racism in its delivery vans and mail boxes in
Spain, which often goes unacknowl- rainbow colors.
edged but can be detected in such